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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Herta Still Riding High After Indy Win
IndyCar driver-turned-owner is reveling in the success, publicity and financial boost his team received from winning Sunday’s Indy 500.
Herta, left, poses with his driver and good friend, Dan Wheldon, after the Brit delivered an historic win for the second-year Bryan Herta Autosport team at Indy. (LAT)
Amidst the celebrations and career rejuvenation that surrounded Dan Wheldon’s unexpected win at the 2011 Indy 500, his team owner, Bryan Herta, also received a major shot in the arm for his sophomore Bryan Herta Autosport IndyCar program.
Formed in 2010 to compete in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, BHA made an early leap into the IZOD IndyCar Series with a single entry for Sebastian Saavedra at the 2010 Indy 500.
The drama for BHA at Indy started last year as Saavedra, who was bumped from the starting field and crashed while trying to re-qualify, learned of making the race from the hospital after Paul Tracy’s team removed their car from the field in an attempt to qualify at a faster speed.
Tracy’s inability to find the speed to make it back into the 500 opened the door for Saavedra and BHA to make the race through an improbable twist of fate.
The emotional rollercoaster Herta experienced with Saavedra was matched and exceeded by what took place on Sunday when Dan Wheldon completed one of the biggest year-to-year turnarounds for a team in Indy 500 history. The fact that Wheldon—Herta’s former teammate and understudy at Andretti-Green Racing—won the race for his good friend made the victory even sweeter.
And of all the trappings that come with winning the Indy 500—the national notoriety, the elevated stature and the industry-wide accolades—it’s depositing the $2.56M check the team earned at Indy that will benefit Herta and his BHA partner Steve Newey the most.
Like most young teams in the IndyCar series, finding the cash to become a solid and consistent performer is hard to come by, but with a seven-figure infusion of funding, Herta says BHA will be in a better place to secure a new 2012 Indy car once the check gets divvied up.
“The prize money check never spreads as far as people think,” he told SPEED.com. “After you pay the driver, give the crew their percentages and cover the costs, a lot of it goes out the door right away, but still, it’s a substantial prize. It’s not enough to say, ‘Yeah, we can now go racing for the rest of the year.’ We find ourselves at a bit of crossroads because we had a plan, a very specific plan, which was all leading up to racing in 2012. This win has opened up some potential opportunities [for 2011], and if we do some additional races, which ones?”
Herta says his challenge is to do what’s best for BHA in 2012 and beyond, and not to get swept up in the emotions of the moment.
“Everyone is excited, but I don’t want to all of a sudden throw a car out on track because we have to try and maintain a relatively high level of performance based on the result we’ve just had. The short answer is that I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do… The phone has been ringing, it has all been interesting and my head is still on 2012. But, could there be some 2011 opportunities? Yes. Will we or should we consider those opportunities? I’m not sure yet.”
One thing Herta knows he’ll be doing this summer is helping to develop the new 2012 Dallara Indy car, although he’d rather keep the details of BHA’s role to a minimum at this point.
“It’s nothing I can talk about yet,” he said. “We’ve committed to the project as a team later this year that would preclude us from doing some of the races, but not all of the races later this year.”
While Herta has a lot of decisions to make for his team in the immediate future, his most pressing engagement—at least for the next few days—is to respond to all of the correspondence that has come in since Sunday.
“It has been amazing,” he continued. “In the digital age, it’s just amazing how many different ways people can communicate. Between e-mail, and voicemail, and my home phone, and Twitter and Facebook…I’m trying to thank everybody individually that reached out to congratulate us, but I’m struggling to keep up with each one right now. Luckily, I’m headed home so I can spend some time catching up there. I need to let everyone know how much I appreciate their support now and over the years.”
It’s too early to pinpoint when the No. 98 BHA IndyCar will be seen next in competition, but when the team does appear, Herta says he’ll have plenty of options if Wheldon is unavailable. After seeing what Herta and Co. did for Wheldon's career, it won't be long before more of his former teammates come calling asking for the same results...
“I’ve had some of those notes from different drivers and guys I know," he said while laughing. "I have a lot of friends on the grid. Some were joking and some were only half-joking about wanting to drive for me... It’s really flattering. We have a really good program, and I think it shows by all the interest that’s come in. I think people are now seeing our team in a different light. It’s obviously very, very flattering for all of us.”
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Formed in 2010 to compete in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, BHA made an early leap into the IZOD IndyCar Series with a single entry for Sebastian Saavedra at the 2010 Indy 500.
The drama for BHA at Indy started last year as Saavedra, who was bumped from the starting field and crashed while trying to re-qualify, learned of making the race from the hospital after Paul Tracy’s team removed their car from the field in an attempt to qualify at a faster speed.
Tracy’s inability to find the speed to make it back into the 500 opened the door for Saavedra and BHA to make the race through an improbable twist of fate.
The emotional rollercoaster Herta experienced with Saavedra was matched and exceeded by what took place on Sunday when Dan Wheldon completed one of the biggest year-to-year turnarounds for a team in Indy 500 history. The fact that Wheldon—Herta’s former teammate and understudy at Andretti-Green Racing—won the race for his good friend made the victory even sweeter.
And of all the trappings that come with winning the Indy 500—the national notoriety, the elevated stature and the industry-wide accolades—it’s depositing the $2.56M check the team earned at Indy that will benefit Herta and his BHA partner Steve Newey the most.
Like most young teams in the IndyCar series, finding the cash to become a solid and consistent performer is hard to come by, but with a seven-figure infusion of funding, Herta says BHA will be in a better place to secure a new 2012 Indy car once the check gets divvied up.
“The prize money check never spreads as far as people think,” he told SPEED.com. “After you pay the driver, give the crew their percentages and cover the costs, a lot of it goes out the door right away, but still, it’s a substantial prize. It’s not enough to say, ‘Yeah, we can now go racing for the rest of the year.’ We find ourselves at a bit of crossroads because we had a plan, a very specific plan, which was all leading up to racing in 2012. This win has opened up some potential opportunities [for 2011], and if we do some additional races, which ones?”
Herta says his challenge is to do what’s best for BHA in 2012 and beyond, and not to get swept up in the emotions of the moment.
“Everyone is excited, but I don’t want to all of a sudden throw a car out on track because we have to try and maintain a relatively high level of performance based on the result we’ve just had. The short answer is that I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do… The phone has been ringing, it has all been interesting and my head is still on 2012. But, could there be some 2011 opportunities? Yes. Will we or should we consider those opportunities? I’m not sure yet.”
One thing Herta knows he’ll be doing this summer is helping to develop the new 2012 Dallara Indy car, although he’d rather keep the details of BHA’s role to a minimum at this point.
“It’s nothing I can talk about yet,” he said. “We’ve committed to the project as a team later this year that would preclude us from doing some of the races, but not all of the races later this year.”
While Herta has a lot of decisions to make for his team in the immediate future, his most pressing engagement—at least for the next few days—is to respond to all of the correspondence that has come in since Sunday.
“It has been amazing,” he continued. “In the digital age, it’s just amazing how many different ways people can communicate. Between e-mail, and voicemail, and my home phone, and Twitter and Facebook…I’m trying to thank everybody individually that reached out to congratulate us, but I’m struggling to keep up with each one right now. Luckily, I’m headed home so I can spend some time catching up there. I need to let everyone know how much I appreciate their support now and over the years.”
It’s too early to pinpoint when the No. 98 BHA IndyCar will be seen next in competition, but when the team does appear, Herta says he’ll have plenty of options if Wheldon is unavailable. After seeing what Herta and Co. did for Wheldon's career, it won't be long before more of his former teammates come calling asking for the same results...
“I’ve had some of those notes from different drivers and guys I know," he said while laughing. "I have a lot of friends on the grid. Some were joking and some were only half-joking about wanting to drive for me... It’s really flattering. We have a really good program, and I think it shows by all the interest that’s come in. I think people are now seeing our team in a different light. It’s obviously very, very flattering for all of us.”
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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